Halloween

It's that weekend when we gain an hour of sleep (spring forward to Daylight Savings Time, fall back to Nature's Time), so you have extra time to celebrate this Halloween weekend. Check out our Halloween and fall-festival events and party on. THEATER SCARE ME A STORY, Halloween storytelling for children and adults: "Family Frights" for age 12 and older at 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, "Creeps for Kids" at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, "Forbidden Fears" for age 18 and older at 9:30 p.m. today and Saturday; Mad Cow Theatre Company, 105 S. Magnolia Ave., Orlando; $12 adults, $10 children; 407-297-8788.

Spooked by the bad economy, Central Florida consumers may choose thrift over treats this Halloween. "I don't think this is a good time to be spending a lot of money," Helen Zassytkina said, echoing the sentiment of many who have been frightened by the rocky stock market and ghoulish housing picture. "I was joking with my co-workers that I was going to try to spend under $3," Zassytkina, 43, said while shopping for a costume for her 9-year-old daughter at a dollar store on East Colonial Drive in Orlando.

This year's edition of "Phantasmagoria" will feature a story by Charles Dickens as part of Orange County's yearlong "What the Dickens Orlando" celebration. This will mark the fifth year that DiDonna Productions has presented a spooky evening of theatrical storytelling, large-scale puppetry and dance during the Halloween season. "Phantasmagoria V" is subtitled "Death Comes for All" (cue ominous crash of thunder). With Dickens, this year's tales come from authors such as Edgar Allen Poe and Lewis Carroll, but the show also employs horrific folk tales, legends and myths from around the world.

You can get information on Orlando Ballet's "Vampire's Ball" and Empty Spaces Theatre Co.'s "Phantasmagoria II" by clicking in the column at left. Here are some other staged theatrical events that celebrate the Halloween season: •'Little Shop of Horrors' - The Alan Menken-Howard Ashman musical sci-fi spoof lands at Garden Theatre in Winter Garden. Audrey II, a man-eating plant, begins a reign of terror to a '60s-inspired soundtrack in the show, produced by TheatreWorks Florida.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office is trying to find a Halloween burglar who targeted a victim's home while parents and children were trick-or-treating Thursday night, clickorlando.com is reporting. A resident at the Colonial Point Apartments in east Orange County was sleeping when a man broke into his apartmen through the porch. Read the full report at clickorlando.com .

Goblins and ghouls, rejoice! The weather will be eerily perfect for Halloween trick-or-treaters and partygoers, meteorologists with the National Weather Service say. There is a 10 percent chance of showers in Orlando before 8 p.m., but meteorologists don't expect the small possibility of rain to disrupt Halloween festivities. The high today will be near 87. The low will be near 69. Local-law enforcement officials say the best time for parents to take young children on their rounds is just before sundown.

SAK Comedy Lab will present its Halloween themed "Duel of Ghouls" - the "Torture Show," at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, at the SAK Comedy Lab in CityArts Factory, 29 S. Orange Ave., Orlando. The SAK performers will jump, wiggle, shriek, gasp and eat their way through a sadistic maze of improv games while acting out scenes suggested by the audience. The comedy challenges will have them bound in duct tape, spinning into vertigo, submerged in water, covered in snap-pins and chug-a-lugging fiendish mixtures that our audience helps concoct.

T he cutesy, hackneyed frights of Halloween will come as a welcome reprieve to the real-life terrors we've lived through this year. Ghastly stories of unemployment and bankruptcies have been an everyday occurrence. And even with the good news Thursday that the economy is finally growing again, there will be more unnerving times to come. So in the spirit of the holiday and what is the likely end of the recession, I asked local business people to recount their scariest moments of the past year.

WE HAD 51 trick or treaters come by our house in the Brookshire area of Winter Park.A few were of senior-high age, but the rest were youngsters. They were polite, said thanks and wished me a ''happy Halloween.'' They had a parent or another adult waiting on the sidewalk with a flashlight. It was a pleasant Halloween, and no tricks.Ruth PattonWINTER PARK

They say celebrity deaths come in threes, so perhaps it's appropriate that "The Walking Dead" is coming back for round 3 of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. The zombie-driven TV drama, which appears on AMC, will be featured prominently for a third consecutive year at the event, which will begin its 24 t h edition Sept. 19. Universal usually limits the use of horror brands to two-year runs. The park will take steps to avoid undead burnout, said Michael Aiello, director of entertainment and creative development.

Cody Williams was arrested in late August, charged with the sexual battery of someone younger than 12. The 18-year-old Clay High School student spent 35 days in jail. One problem: He was the wrong Cody Williams. Three officers have received formal counseling for their role in the wrongful arrest and another officer faces a 10-day unpaid suspension and a transfer from investigations to patrol. Deputy Sheriff Johnny Hawkins of the Clay County Sheriff's Office will learn Tuesday if he will receive that punishment.

An Orange County grand jury indicted three men in the Halloween shooting death of Richard Bond, whose body was found dumped in a parking lot. Romero Simpson, 29, Rafael Harrison, 27, and 52-year-old Ansel Haughton were charged with first degree murder, attempted robbery with a firearm, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and accessory to murder, according to the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office. Bond, 35, was shot to death in the 1900 block on Pineway Drive and his body was left in a business center parking lot on Lake Ellenor Drive, south of Orlando.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office is trying to find a Halloween burglar who targeted a victim's home while parents and children were trick-or-treating Thursday night, clickorlando.com is reporting. A resident at the Colonial Point Apartments in east Orange County was sleeping when a man broke into his apartmen through the porch. Read the full report at clickorlando.com .

Goblins and ghouls, rejoice! The weather will be eerily perfect for Halloween trick-or-treaters and partygoers, meteorologists with the National Weather Service say. There is a 10 percent chance of showers in Orlando before 8 p.m., but meteorologists don't expect the small possibility of rain to disrupt Halloween festivities. The high today will be near 87. The low will be near 69. Local-law enforcement officials say the best time for parents to take young children on their rounds is just before sundown.

In Mount Dora, two doomed lovers from the 1930s are still seen strolling arm in arm through the halls - and straight through the doors - of the Lakeside Inn. In Orlando, an 8-year-old girl plays with visiting schoolchildren while she waits for her parents, as she has since the 1970s, to retrieve her from the grounds of the Orange County Regional History Center. And in Kissimmee, a Confederate bugler is occasionally heard playing near the site of an old encampment on the shores of Lake Toho.

Do you like costumes that are ghoulishly gruesome or freakishly funny? Tell us what your howling Halloween favorite is and you could win a $250 Visa gift card! You must be a registered user on OrlandoSentinel.com to leave a comment. You will be prompted to log in/register when leaving a comment.

Halloween soon will be a memory for this year, but the haunted-house business will live on at Old Town, the retail and entertainment complex in Kissimmee. Legends: A Haunting at Old Town, which opened this month, will try to continue alarming visitors with a funeral-home theme year-round, co-owner Dan Carro said. "It's like you're walking through an actual mortuary instead of just going through a haunted house," said Carro, whose first job was as an actor at Terror on Church Street, a downtown Orlando haunt that closed in 1999.

Minions, zombies and Miley Cyrus are hot costumes this year, but they won't be enough to get Halloween revelers to spend as much as they did a year ago, retail experts say. The National Retail Federation expects a 13.75 percent drop in total U.S. spending on Halloween - to $6.9 billion compared with 2012. Adults will spend an average of $75.03. UCF student Corey Fleming, 18, will be prowling her closet for her "Great Gatsby" costume, sparing only a few bucks for accessories, such as a red feather boa. "I'm just more aware of the value of money," said Fleming, who was shopping Monday at a Spirit Halloween store in east Orlando.